A Chocolate City

The preliminary results have been announced for the Mayoral elections in New Orleans and Ray Nagin has come out on top. I think that is good because Nagin was not wrong in asserting that New Orleans should be rebuilt as 'a chocolate city'. While the term was significantly loaded in racial terms (i.e. New Orleans should be rebuilt with a predominantly black population), I think there should be a racial point made in the process. New Orleans has historically been a black city. In the 2000 census, New Orleans was less than 30 percent white (see page 9) (excluding the small population classified as other or mixed races, which makes up less than 7 percent of the total population). New Orleans should focus on repopulating black expatriates and reducing the poverty of those in the city. New Orleans was a very poor city, but now the spotlight is on it, it has the chance to be a golden city of black America, as long as the funding that was promised by Mr. Bush comes. It better not be cut short.